AHPC Post 7 Late Roman Watchtower

 

A cohort of Tungrians mans the ramparts 

I was travelling for 4 days this week, so only a small offering in the form of this 28mm Roman Watchtower.  As with most of my BUAs it is a Sarissa pdf kit which went together nicely and painted up well.

It's not as substantial as a Saxon Shore fort or Milecastle on the Wall, but should be useful in scenario applications or as table dressing.  The whitewash with red brick trim comes from Osprey books on the Saxon Shore forts and the Wall, but is also confirmed by serious history books written by respected academics. 

The interior space nicely fits one of my 60mm square bases.  The top floor removes so that you can access the first (UK) or second (rest of the world) floor.

Interior view.  

I added some minimal ground cover, except that under the stairs looks like a place blackberries would grow.  I also added some grammatically correct graffiti to the back wall.  See this following link for a reference (incidentally when my daughter was having trouble conducting verbs int French immersion I used this clip as a teaching aide)....

Points wise this measures out to about 1/2 a terrain cube. I'd give the math but I don't want to cause pain to Greg, so we'll go with the "here's where the miracle occurs" method common among my students when approaching proofs.

AHPC XII: Ruins at Arda

The planet Arda carries a Fantasy theme, so I've gone with this Giant attacking a tower in 28mm.  Just for fun note that the top two levels of the tower are removable allowing me to do this.

In an homage to this classic DnD module...

Ok let's break down the components here.  

First up is the Giant, who is a Wizkids Stone Giant in 28mm scale.  I will note that the figure is about 90mm from sole of foot to top of head and that the tower he's standing next to is 6" high (152mm) for comparison.  I will leave scoring him up to the Snowlord.  In the Beowulf adventures Giants are more generic than straight DnD, but I tried to keep to the Stone Giant Theme.  It's a nice sculpt with facial features midway between an Easter Island Moai and Grace Jones.

Backside view as I am thinking that's the view my adventurers want to see!

Next up are the human foes who are from the Gipping Beast Arthurian (mostly) and other ranges.  I painted the fighters up to represent the Comitatus of a local Warlord, using the red tunics and shields with double headed dragons to provide a unit theme.
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I will come back and touch ups he shields but wanted to get these posted today.

The seventh figure is the Merlin figure who has a lot of the age old mystery to him. I love the metal bird on his staff, is it the Eagle of the Ninth?  Seven 28mm figures is 35 points.

These are good solid Beastie boy figures, lots of individual differences.  They can serve in Beowulf adventures as friends, foes or neutrals as required.  I my also do some Sub-Roman Britain skirmish games using Lion Rampant or Dux B.   

Finally we have the Ruins which I am revealing in full glory below.  This is a Sarissa Ruined City set consisting of 8 modular bases that can be rearranged as suits the scenario or decided in to smaller ruins.  I figure it can serve as a Roman ruin in Beowulf, or a generic ruin for other RPGs os Moonstone for later period historical games.  The total set covers an area 8" by 16", and is mostly 3" tall except for the tower which is 6' tall.  My math makes this exactly 2 cubes of terrain for 40 points.

Arrangement 1

Arrangment 2

Arrangement 3

Points wise I cout up

• 35 points for the humans
• 40 points for the 2 cubes of ruin
• ? points for the Giant
• 20 points for the Arda location
• Merlin and the Giant should count against the forlorn hope of the Challenge Duel

Having completed four planets on the Outer Ring, I am ready to explore the Middle Ring and all step on one of the Warp Maelstorms either side of Arda to see where I end up. 

AHPC XII 28mm Terrain

I’m again participating in this years painting challenge  https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/.  Here’s my first post.

I wasn't supposed to be posting today.  I was supposed to be in Halifax, NS staying with my mother in law and doing Christmas with family.  However, we cancelled our tip based on COVID numbers and so here I am.

First up for me is a couple of terrain items in 28mm.  These are 28mm scale and MDF kits from Sarissa.  I've had good experience with Sarissa and these were no exception.  The main piece is a barn or forge.  It is sold in their dark age range but I figure that I can use it for my Beowulf themed RPG games, my El Cid era games and my SYW games plus others.

The other bit is a piece of dock that should have been painted a while back.  I finished up some similar docks and a Viking town for a tabletop RPG game featuring Thigmund the Thea Therpent, but somehow missed this one.

Points wise these measure out to be about 1/4 a of terrain cube so that's 5 points to erase my duck.

We are in the midst of a Prairie cold snap so I'll be hunkered down like this fellow who took up temporary residence in our snow bank

_________________________________________

Be careful Peter, it may look cute, but I hear those have nasty, big, pointy... well, you know the rest.

Nice work on these mate! Sarissa makes great stuff, and these two pieces will be very nice additions to your picturesque seaside Dark Age village.

Well done and welcome back to the Challenge!

And stay warm!

- Curt

Painting Challenge Italian Wars Terrain

Another post from the Painting Challenge as I stop off at Cook's Crevasse where posts have to have a geological theme to them.

I'm a little nervous about this as I've taken a geology course before and I know that Dr. Cook is pretty hard-a**ed (From DaveD - yes but weirdly he seems to allergic to sand - some geologist!- don’t ask ). I have two pieces of terrain made from stone for my Italian Wars project.  These are 28mm and made by TTCombat.

First up is a house.  Wikipedia tells me that period buildings in Tuscany use a mix of sandstone and limestone, which in this case have been covered over with some stucco work.  I like the details that TTC puts into its products, the curved porch, louvered windows and the tiled roofing.  One of the louvers fell out of one window set during construction.  I could have ruled it back but left the window blank to give the impression of a Medici, Borgia or Sforza plotting in the shadows out of sight.  

Next we have a stepped bridge.  I like that the steps have been left wide enough to hold stands of figures and once again the detailing is nice.  I tried to give the compass rose in the middle span the impression of inlaid marbles in white, black and blue/grey.  On table we'll have to figure out how vehicles and gun crews navigate the steps.  

As with my first TTC house, I used a basic wash technique mostly using raw sienna, raw umber and burnt umber, all of which are based on the earth pigments used in Renaissance Italy for a further geological link.

There's also an economics lesson in this post.  I picked all three of the TTC pieces in Meeplemart in Toronto along with some stuff for Curt.  My three buildings came to less than the two sets of GW dice that Curt asked me to pick up.  I like to tease Curt that I don't require that my dice pass though the intestines of a civet cat.

These two pieces pretty much fill a 6" cubic unit so that's 20 points for the models and 30 for Cook's Crevasse, assuming Dr Cook gives me passing grade.  My progress across Challenge Island is plotted on the map below.  Next up I'll likely be taking a balloon ride across to the western coast.

Also when Curt first posted about the Island, I commented that the stops looks like merit badges from my boy scout days.  I've decided that I'll note my progress in terms of badges earned too.

Me circa 1976.  My gaming activities included first edition D&D, Avalon Hill board games and badly painted Airfix Nappys in Humbrol enamels. 

TTCombat Italian House

The annual madness that is the Painting Challenge is up and running.  First post for me is a BUA for my Italian Wars project in 28mm.  This piece is from TTCombat and I picked it up at Meeplemart during a trip to Toronto the Centre of the Universe last fall.  

This was my first kit from TTC and I was quite pleased with it.  TTC uses a heavy pdf than Sarissa or Warbases and it required a bit of work with the Xacto to trim the pieces from the frame and to make sure than Tab A fit in Slot B securely.  As such there are some gaps on this first effort that hopefully will be rectified on further efforts.  Paint work is very basic, I left the pdf and greyboard unprimed and used washes in various earth tones.

As can be seen TTC provide some interior details but I chose not to paint the interiors.  I glued the two floors together but left the roof as lift off, but the upper story could be left in lift off state as well.  This would be useful in skirmish gaming.

This kit (plus two other on the workbench) come from TTC' Streets of Venice range which is worth checking out.  The structures would be useful for many historical periods plus fantasy gaming.  Although labelled for Venice I think it will do for any Italian locale.  I was quite pleased when I showed this to my wife (who unlike me has been to Tuscany) who said it looked like Sienna.  

Points wise the building is 6" tall, 6"long and 3" wide.  That's a perfect demi-cube and an easy to calculate 10 points. 

28mm MDF Buildings from Sarissa For SYW

The two new buildings.  The figures were completed before the challenge

La Belle Alliance in the rear, cart shed to the left and farmhouse to the right.

Much to my own surprise I have stuff to post this week, and am in fact holding back on figures that I could post saving them for next week.  Plus I've made in roads into projects for each of the next three bonus rounds.  This happens when one's kid is in grad school; and one's wife is across the country looking after a mother post surgery.

What I am going to post this week is two more of the marvellous 28mm mdf kits from Sarissa precision.  These will feature in my Seven Year's War project for Western Germany

Close up of cart shed, the interior wall is half timbered with brick fill, basically it's a cut down version of the end wall.

First up is the Cart Shed from their English Timber Framed range.  It bears a close family resemblance to the farm house that I posted last week and painted up just as nicely. My only mod was to once again add black card stock to the windows to hide what's inside, although the wide open barn doors leave less to the imagination.  These doors also left me a challenge as the etched detail on one interior wall is clearly visible from outside.  I put the kit together in a wild rush of excitement and perhaps should have painted the interior walls first, but I think I managed to make it all look OK.  

Backside of the cart shed.  Should probably do a quick wash over the brickworks.

Next up is the La Belle Alliance Inn from field of Waterloo, and from Sarissa's Old Europe range .  They've done a number of buildings from Waterloo and I quite fancy the Chateau at Papelotte and the Church at Placenoit for future projects.  My model is both south east of Flanders and in a different linguistic zone, so I have google translated the name to Die Schon Allianz.  No mods other than the black card stock and different colours of paint, although I did include the optional shutters and a sign.

Die Schon Allianz, again needed a wash on the bricks

I ran possible names past StefanK, and he noted that French wikipedia says that the name refers to a marriage between a beautiful young woman and the grumpy old owner.  Meanwhile English wikipedia notes that the woman acquired the ownership of the tavern and two other buildings via inheritance from 3 of her 4 husbands!  I did up the sign on card stock featuring Hogarth print from his Before and After series, it seemed to fit. 

Quite happy with the sign but need to regale bottom right corner

These two buildings were painted from bare mdf with out priming, I find that if I maintain a light touch the mdf gives interesting textures through the paint.  I've also had discussions with Sarissa on the whole prime/don't prime debate.  They say that the detail will hold up unless I apply the primer with a trowel and that they've been known to get a kit painted up badly and then prime it and repaint it without losing details.  Good to know, but I'm not planning to try that!

This shot shows that the roofs lift off and that the two timber framed ones have upper floors that also life out (note the cut out on the upper left corner)

Upper floors lifted out.  The rafter system is very good.  Note that the cart shed's interior wall is only on the ground floor.

I converted the dimensions on the Sarissa sight to king's noses and the math shows that Die Schonn Allianz is 194/216=90% and the cart shed is 98/216=45% of a cubic terrain unit respectively.  The Hessian Erbprinz Regiment was completed just before this challenge and I think started just at the end of the last challenge!  I finally got around to adding unit labels and flags and they have yet to appear in the blogosphere as a finished unit.

Byron and Curt were asking about the scale of the buildings so have two shots with Hessian Erbprinz Regiment to show that they look good with 28s.

Sarissa Precision 28mm MDF Buildings

For the first post from me this week I have two 28mm buildings, MDF kits from Sarissa.  I have a number of the Sarissa kits and I'm very happy with them.  They go together nicely (other than the odd user error), look the part and paint up nicely.  A pleasant evening building these and another pleasant evening painting them up.

I didn't show it, but the roof lifts off and there is a removable upper floor.

First up is a farmhouse from their English Timber Framed range.  I figure that similar buildings existed in Hesse and Westphalia in the mid 18th century.  I built the kit straight out of the box, as there was enough detail that no add on bits were required, the only change I made was to add black yardstick behind the windows to hide what lies within. 

I do like the  details like the brick work.

I hemmed and hawed on priming, and went unprimed in the end which I think was the right choice.  The details are lightly etched and I didn't want to fill them in with primer (I can have a heavy hand with the spray bomb).  Paint wise I found that a light touch and various degrees of thinning with water did the trick.  It's all one coat, except for a wash over the brickwork, and only four colours - red oxide, unbleached titanium, carbon black and raw umber.   

This is a very tall piece but can be dissembled for storage or transport.  The blades come off, and the building lifts off the pedestal (and swivels on this).  The main structure has two stories plus a roof that lifts off.

Next up is the post windmill, which seem to have appeared all over Western Europe in the black powder years.  IIIRC, having a windmill in your village tended to put you on the map back in the day.  Ligny and Valmy had prominent windmills on the battlefields.  This kit was actually built last spring (it appears in my challenge 8 wind up photo), but it took me until now to get the bottle up to paint it.  I used only three colours for the actual windmill - raw umber and carbon black, with only a touch of unbleached titanium to lighten the woodwork on doors etc.  

The base has stayed in the same place but I rotated the windmill.  I like the stairway and the crane.

Point wise, i used the rough dimensions on Sarissa's site, converted mm to medieval king's body parts and came up with figures that the farmhouse is 49% of a 6" cube and the windmill is 46% of the same cube. if the minion's feeling generous he can round this to 20 points for a full cube, if not then it'll be 19 points.

These will be used for Black Powder wargaming (and yes Ray unlike yours my figures actually appears on table).  We didn't define whether terrain counts for the BP side duel, so I'll ask for my fellow duellists call on that one.  Not that it'll matter as both Ray and Alex have paint bombed me into submission this week.

Kardstadt am Eder

Followers of this blog might note that when it comes to obtaining wargaming toys and accessories, my attitude can be best described as cheap and impatient.   Having looked over my terrain and buildings,  I decided that I needed buildings that would be appropriate for my SYW Kleine Kreig project.  A quick flip through tourism guides and photos on the web showed me that the period architecture of Western Germany looked a lot like those beautiful model railway buildings sold by Faller et al.  However a mass mail order of plastic kits wasn't going to meet my budget or attention span.

A better option would be home scratch builds.  I consider myself reasonably proficient with foam core, artist board and scrap cardboard and feel that I can turn out a workman-like final product.  Unlike some members of the fraternity I quite enjoy this type of modelling project.  I will likely turn to this option down the road.  I find that January and February are good times for building construction - a good project when the budget is tight, the nights are freezing and Christmas packaging is a ready source of materials. 

But in the interim cheap and fast gave me a clarion call in the form of emails from Wargames Vault about free samples of Dave Graffam card model kits and deep discounts on Graffam kits.  So off I went.

A completed model of the freebie hovel in the foreground and a work in progress Carriage house in the background.

What you get  are a set of PDF files that you can print out and assemble as buidlings.   The hovel and carriage house above were two of the freebis.  FOr the hovel I rpinted the templates on regular paper and glued them to a cut up cereal box (Gluten Free Chocolate Chex)  with the spray adhesive visible in the background.   I believe that the section of the Leader Post that I used has an article on Canadian Literary icon Margaret Attwood, who is a second or similar cousin on my mother's side.  My maternal grandmother had a regular correspondence with "Peggy" right up to her death at 99 and received signed copies of all of Atwood's works.

Same buildings, different angle.  Note the flaps on the carriage house to attach the roofs.

Given the small size of the model and the stiffness of the cereal box, the hovel is quite sturdy and set to be used on table.  I glued the carriage house onto light card stock, which is less rigid.  Combined with the bigger size, this one will need more support.  I figure on using foam core inside the walls to give it some bulk.  We have a good supply of slightly used foam core thanks to my wife's time as a Brownie and Guide leader.

From another angle.

The carriage house comes with two roof pieces and an optional dormer winder which I will mount in the white rectangle visible above.  This kit is a marvel of options.  It is a layered PDF file that let's you pick wall types (brick, stone or wood), roof options, window and door positions, weathering (see the cracks in the shot above) etc.  You can reuse the same kit many times and get different results on each one. 

A different arrangement of walls, windows and doors on the carriage house

So far I am having fun and am pleased on the results.  More posts to follow.

The finished hovel looks suitable to house Hansel and Gretel.

Close up of the Carriage House.  You can see the need for internal support.